The Oven can be your kitchen ally – The Art of Roasting!!!

Nigerians love our meat, there is no denying. Last week a friend called me and said Dunni help, I have a vegetarian coming for my sons’ 1 yr birthday party and I am at a complete loss regarding vegetarian options. I asked if the person was Nigerian (so I knew what to recommend) and we both laughed. Nigerian and Vegetarian is not something you see often. I told her to prepare a sauce with mushrooms and serve with Jollof or Fried rice made with vegetable stock. Apparently it went down very well with her Indian guest and she called the next day to say thank you. If you are at your wits end about a menu plan for your party, even if it’s just hosting a few friends. Drop me an email, and I’ll work with you.

So, this post is inspired by our love for meat especially as we tend to be one tracked with cooking our meats. We either chop a beautiful bird or slabs of meat into portions then proceed to boil, fry and toss in a delicious fried tomato sauce. Or we get out the barbecue and grill. Both options are delicious but have you ever thought of saving yourself the stress and using the oven? I mean, most kitchens have an oven. A lot of people don’t even use their ovens, except for those who bake. Your oven can be your kitchen ally once you master the art of roasting. So, the next time chicken or turkey is on the menu, preserve the whole bird and roast it instead. The next time you go meat shopping, even in local markets, buy a big slab of meat and roast it. Fish too? Of course you can bake it whole in the oven or use the grill rods in the oven.

Which would you go for first?

You just need to purchase simple kitchen tools that you will use over and over

1. An Oven tray

2. A deep roasting pan – ceramic, glass or aluminium

3. A turkey baster

4. A roll of foil paper.

Turkey, Chicken, Duck, Pheasant or Guinea Fowl

Now, these all have different cooking times, so the size of the bird and the age of the bird will determine how long you need it in the oven for. As for the stuffing, its primary aim is to keep the bird moist internally so it doesn’t dry out. There are so many ingredients sitting in your fridge and freezer that you can use for stuffing, you don’t even need to look further for inspiration. The basic ingredients you need for stuffing are:

So, you see, you don’t have to look further than your kitchen pantry/store, fridge or freezer. Simply decide on what ingredients you are going to combine to make the stuffing, mix together in a bowl and set aside. In another small bowl mix your seasonings and salt with olive oil and coat the bird thoroughly inside and out (a little messy – remember to wash your hands afterwards) then fill with stuffing and tie the legs together with a piece of cooking string (please do not use a plastic string).

To provide some moisture i spread bacon strips across the turkey and sprinkled over some dry pepper (cayenne pepper)

You can choose to roast a bird on its own, or accompany it with vegetables in the roasting pan that you can serve alongside the bird. This is also easy peasy too. Simple options like carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, spring onions, leeks, tomatoes, Tatashe (red bell pepper), Green pepper etc, I can list for days. So, why don’t you save yourself some trouble and let the oven do all the work for you. Roasting a bird takes an average of 30 minutes to 1 hour or more depending on the type of bird, the size and age of the bird. As it roasts, it will release its own juices into the pan, simply scoop this juice and baste the bird. Do this after the first 35 minutes for a large bird to prevent the bird from drying out. If you want to cook chicken breasts, just make a thin incision in the fleshy part and fill with your stuffing. A simple stuffing for chicken breasts can be garlic and herb butter or sausages combined with olive oil to keep the flesh moistened while it is in the oven

Lamb, Beef, Ham, or Pork

Oooh, one of my favourites to roast, but a little tricky because if you over cook it you would kick yourself for watching Tv while your gorgeous succulent meat turned to leather or in the case of Lamb, a texture only people with dentures will enjoy. Lol. The same principles apply with poultry, but unlike poultry, stuffing is usually optional. Personally I don’t bother. I simply prepare a fantastic rub and I make deep incisions in the meat and rub it in so the flavour goes deep into the meat.

Roasting a leg of lamb – I wanted to serve with simple roast vegetables so this is a whole meal in the roasting pan.

Dooney’s Kitchen Rub comprises of:

Dry Pepper – cayenne pepper

Jumbo Seasoning – you can use Knorr Chicken cubes

Onion Powder or granules

Garlic salt

Curry Powder

Dried Thyme

Dried coriander

Olive oil

Suya spice – optional: if you have otherwise the ingredients above will do just fine

Combine all this with Olive oil to form a thick paste and this will be your rub. If you are going to grill your meat on a hot barbecue this will rub will do great. Once you have applied this all over the meat, cover it in cling film or foil and let it marinade for 10 minutes before you put it in the oven.

The easiest to cook in an oven. For those who live in Nigeria, you must have eaten at “point and kill” joint before. You can do this at home yourself. Writing this brings back fond memories of Abacha Barracks in Abuja. Flaming grills of delicious fish dripping with a sauce of grilled onions and ata rodo that will make your eyes, nose and throat water. It is definitely not for the faint hearted. Those women must guard their recipe jealously, anyone who has the 411 on their spice rub, hit me up please.

With fish and seafood you have to be careful not to drown it in spice and seasoning. Keep it simple please so that the natural flavours can shine through. These ingredients help make that happen:

Citrus – lime, lemon and oranges work really well. It you have noticed, in restaurants fish is usually served with a wedge of lemon or lime

Herbs – parsley, coriander, basil or thyme

Olive oil

Salt – I use seasoning cubes sparingly when I put fish in the oven

So, what do you do? Simply place your whole fish in a bed of foil, score the fish – 2 or 3 incisions on each side of the fish. Coat with Olive oil, sprinkle the juice of half a lime or lemon over the fish, salt, seasoning cubes, and the herbs. On the sides of the fish place roughly chopped garlic, onions and ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) and loosely wrap the fish in foil and place on a grill pan and put in the oven. Why loosely wrap? So the steam will have space to circulate and cook the fish in its own juices.

Oven baked Grouper

So, I hope I have been able to give you ideas to put that oven to work. After all you paid for it, so use it. The best part of cooking meats or fish in the oven is the ease factor. You can do other things while the oven does all the work, or you can simply relax and just wait for the timer to ring. With roasting, always set the temperature to high for the entire duration so the meat can cook evenly. With fish, the timings are pretty brief. 15 – 20 minutes and most fish or seafood will be cooked because it is cooking under intense steam in a sealed environment, so it will cook faster.

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About Dooney

Dooney is the blogger, recipe developer and photographer for Dooney's Kitchen. I spend my days trying to figure out creative ways to redefine Nigerian food, either by creating a new dish itself using ingredients in ways that have never been used before, or changing the approach to Nigerian cooking using kitchen gadgets.

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Comments

Hi dunni,
I think I’m not doing something right with my oven.it keeps bringing out lots of smoke when I try baking in it and can’t seem to get the problem.pls advice.
Note that its a gas oven not electric.

Also what other ways can I prepare frankfurt susages apart from frying,cos it tastes quite band wen fried only.

Hi dolapo, your oven is smoking because it has a lot of caked oil in it, so every time you use it, the heat melts the oil resulting in smoke. Simply give your oven a very good scrubbing to remove any oil deposit. If you buy any of the chemical cleaning agents names oven cleaner. Those work well. Otherwise mix lemon juice with bicarbonate of soda to form a thick paste and rub all over the insides of the oven including the corners and let this soak for an hour or two, then wipe generously with a water soaked dish rag. Once you’ve gotten all the bicarb paste out. Put on the oven for 10 minutes to allow the heat melt off any excess oil sediments, then wipe again with the dish rag. Try to give your oven a good scrubbing at least once every month.

Frankfurters are smoked sausages so they don’t do very well fried in oil or boiled in water. So, grill them next time in the oven. To add extra flavour chop a red onion into rings, place on top of the sausages and grill in the oven. Remember tu turn it every few minutes so that all edges receive some heat. I hope that helps

pls is there a specific type of olive oil for cooking or can any one serve.and wen grilling meat or fish chopped into bits do you still need to wrap in foil.and how healthy is it to wrap in foil with maximum heat.

I use regular olive oil. Anyone will serve. You can grill with or without foil. With foil is great, because it captures the steam making the fish more moist. Yes it is healthy to wrap in foil. It is way better than plastic wraps

Hi Dunni, thanks so much for making a good cook out of me. I must tell you discovering your blog changed my cooking experience . I am no longer afraid to try new recipes. I have replicated a lot of your recipes and they turned out prefect .
Please Christmas is here now. I will love you to write on prefect Christmas turkey roast and some other Christmas dinner suggestions . Thanks

You are simply too much, you share with a large heart. God bless you Big for that. Waiting for the roast turkey info too, I have turkey, pork and chicken in the freezer and would love to do some very nice things to them for Christmas . Thanks again.

Hello Dunni,
D last time I used my oven to grill chicken the foil tore and it caused water and oil to spill into d oven this made the whole kitchen smoke terribly.pls how can o avoid this.
And pls is Der any other name for bicarbonate of soda

Oh dear, sorry about that. It seems as if the foils as not heavy enough for the weight of the chicken, so as the chicken expanded while cooking, it tore the foil. Best thing to do is to grill chicken in a deep baking tray. The ones that are not as deep as baking pans but not as flat as baking trays either. If you can’t get this trays, then wrap the chicken in multiple layers of foil, so it will hold the weight. I hope that helps

Hi dunni I just discovered ur blog n m so xcited.m so new @ cooking or should I say trying anything other than the conventional. I want to grill chicken breasts but I don’t seem to understand what to do.i want to use my oven(for grilling the fire is from below right or do I use the one above too.) I live in Nigeria- calabar to be exact so u understand that somethings are not readily available here coupled with the light factor. I have oven trays but no idea on where to get a roasting pan..thank you. …n pls do do you do videos or have videos? It’ll make things so much easier for some of us.thank you

Hi Inem, you should be able to get a roasting tray in Shoprite. i think there is a shoprite in calabar. For grilling, think of open grilling, the fire is usually from below, so light the bottom part of your oven. I don’t have videos yet, but I am looking to do some this year, Lord willing

Hi Dooney,
thanks for ur blog, rili enjoy going tru ur blog evryday. hv so improved in cooking and tryn new things. my oven is the electric one with grill attached to it, hope it can be used to bake too and grill at the same time. though havent rili used it.
expecting ur reply. tanx.

Hi Pearl, it is possible you are turning the known the wrong way. Check your manual and find out which marker on the knob is for Grilling. The marker for grilling is like small and stretched letter W. I hope that helps

Hi Dooney, pls I’d like to know more about the mushroom sauce you recommended for a vegetarian guest in the post above. There was this mushroom sauce my mom used to make when I was a kid. It was soooooo delish and she gave us soo little of it you could tell she wouldn’t give at all if she could…lol #mymomgoesintohidingifshedoesnthavealottoshare. Anyways, I grew up with that mushroom sauce taste still somewhere on my tastebuds waiting to be awakened. Going thru your blog, I realized you’ve practically just about covered every Nigerian soup there is so I searched for ‘mushroom’ and here I am, asking for mushroom sauce recipe.
BTW, I’m proud of you, your blog and all you’ve accomplished. Keep it up.

Hi Dooney. I must confess you are doing a great work. Please, do I need to rub the spice on the fish of chicken or I should just sprinkle it on it?
2. Can I add seasoning? if yes how can I measure it.
Thanks

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Hi, my name is Dunni Obata, and I am what you would call the poster child for redefining Nigerian food. Welcome to Dooney's Kitchen, the home of Nigerian centric food, detailed recipes and sharing personal stories. Read more...

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